Jennifer Turner has been the director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center for 13 years. She has created meetings, exchanges and publications focusing on a variety of energy and environmental challenges facing China, particularly on water, energy and climate challenges, as well as environmental nongovernmental organizations, environmental journalism, and environmental governance in China. Her current projects are:

Jennifer also serves as editor of the Wilson Center’s journal, the China Environment Series, which is mailed to over 4,000 environmental practitioners around the world who work on China’s energy and environmental issues.

She received a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Comparative Politics in 1997 from Indiana University, Bloomington. In her dissertation, she examined local government innovation in implementing water policies in the China. Her current research focuses heavily on water and environmental activism in China.

EducationPh.D., Public Policy and Comparative Politics, Joint Program in School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Department of Political Science, Indiana University; B.A., Germanic Language and Literature, University of Illinois; Chinese Language Certificate, Chinese Language Center, Cheng Kung University Tainan, Taiwan

HonorsOutstanding Faculty Award, by Psi Kappa Psi, Winthrop University, April 1999; Outstanding Instructor Award, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, February 1997; Indiana University International Programs Exchange Fellowship, for research at Hangzhou University, China; MacArthur Travel Grant, by the Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, dissertation research in China 1994-1995; Foreign Language Area Scholarship, by East Asian Studies Center, Indiana University, 1992; MacArthur Travel Grant, by the Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, research at the East-West Center, Hawaii, 1993

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Report on a December 11, 2001, Wilson Center Conference focused on three major challenges posed by China's membership in the WTO: adjust in the rural sector; the impact on China's state run enterprises; and the myriad adjustments China will make as it meets its WTO obligations. Click on the attachment for a free PDF version. more

Since winning the Olympic bid in 2001, Beijing has invested heavily in green construction materials and sustainable energy for the Olympic Village, and made momentous efforts to clean the city's notoriously dirty air and water. more

For the eighth year in a row, the China Environment Forum hosts a screening of a film in the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. This year's film—The Blood of Yingzhou District—won best documentary short subject at the 2007 Academy Awards® for its portrayal of HIV/AIDS orphans in China. more

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The deal, a surprise to many, has been called, “historic.” Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced both countries will curb their greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades. Is this the game changer that those calling for action have been waiting for? Will this create momentum for increased international cooperation? And what does the deal address beyond carbon emissions? China Environment Forum Director, Jennifer Turner provides analysis.

"If China really can become more aggressive in actually enforcing their water pollution control laws, it would open up a lot of clean water for the people," Jennifer Turner said on BBC World News' "Impact."

We are excited to announce that our partner, Circle of Blue, is launching a partnership with Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory's Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies (LIGTT) to create Choke Point: Index, an innovative synthesis of on-the-ground reporting, analysis, polling, and open-source data technologies to focus on the United States, Canada, India, and other water-stressed regions.

The Asian Development Bank, a CEF Partner on Choke Point: Cities, recently released a comprehensive country environmental analysis report on the People's Republic of China. The report highlighted environmental achievements and substantial remaining challenges, while providing analysis on the drivers of environmental stress and recommendations for moving towards an environmentally sustainable future.

China has done an “admirable” job of moving coal-fired power plants out of Beijing, Jennifer Turner tells Voice of America. But “they already had a lot of coal plants, and they have been building more.”

By Jennifer Turner
Linden Ellis
Devin Kleinfield-Hayes
Quick Glance
Chinese investment currently makes up a small but fast-growing portion of clean energy projects in the United States. Some Chinese companies have established local manufacturing in the United States to address US regulators' concerns about job creation.
Some local governments in the United States have encouraged Chinese investment in clean energy by offering supportive policies such as tax credits.

The Canada Institute and the China Environment Forum are honored to host a distinguished panel for a discussion on the energy-water nexus that exists within the China-North America relationship. Our panelists will examine the ways that North American energy exports impact water and energy use in China, as well as the ways that these exports are changing American and Canadian use of water domestically.

China’s soaring economy, fueled by an unyielding appetite for coal, is threatened by the country's steadily diminishing freshwater reserves. The United States faces similar water-energy confrontations—over millions of gallons of water are taken from ranchers to develop the deep oil and gas shale reserves of the west and there are battles between Georgia and Florida over diminishing drinking water reserves. Global Choke Point, though, is not necessarily a narrative of doom and gloom. The presentations will examine both the challenges and opportunities presented by these looming choke points.

As world energy demand soars, nations and corporations around the globe are seeking new resources and techniques for expanding energy production. The Canada Institute and China Environment Forum will examine these issues and the future of the Chinese-North American energy relationship.

China has made significant progress in building an administrative system for environmental protection from nil over the past 40 years. The most recent reform of the government organization at the national level in 2008 was guided by the concept of establishing a system of “super-ministries” with comprehensive functions so as to trim the size of the government and improve efficiency. As part of this, the then-State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) was upgraded to the level of a full ministry with a cabinet position on the State Council, renamed the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). But the nation still is confronted by serious and growing environmental problems that require further significant advances.
Based on the results of a World Bank Technical Assistance, the presentation will examine the current situation and problems with the administrative system for environmental protection, review past government administrative reforms and international experience, and set out a series of recommendations for the future reform of the national-level administrative system for environmental protection in six main areas - roles and responsibility of government agencies, environmental laws, a national coordination and decision making body, MEP organizational structure, supervision of local governments, and capacity building.

Environment and energy issues pose both threats and opportunities no matter where you sit. Leading experts discuss how two critical American actors are tackling these challenges: the business community and the U.S. military.

The confrontation between growth, water, and energy is readily visible in both the U.S. and China and is virtually certain to grow over the next decade. Leading experts examined the energy-water “choke points” that are tightening around the world’s two largest economies and how the dilemma affects energy and environmental policy choices facing the U.S. Congress.

The extraordinary influx of Chinese clean energy investments into the United States and the torrid pace at which new generation has been added has led U.S. policymakers to wring their hands in frustration, and some have proposed "Buy American" requirements to counter the trend. But what's really going on in the marketplace? A new study that looks beyond the headline investment figures and finds there to be little zero-sum competition between the two nations and, in fact, the two countries will need to cooperate in many ways in order to meet their respective carbon reduction goals.

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China Environment Forum is proud to introduce China Environment Series 12, a new volume of our annual publication with a special focus on water and energy. CES 12 features a special review section on water-energy nexus challenges in China, a special focus section on China's troubled lakes, 8 commentaries, 7 feature boxes, and 4 spotlight articles discussing a wide variety of environmental and energy issues.

PECS News Issue 3 features a report from the Wilson Center's forum on HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, and an article on urban health in megacities by University of Michigan International Development Associate Brian Hubbard.

Section 1 presents an overview of green NGO development in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan, and paints pictures of three diverse environmental movements. Also includes Foreword and Table of Contents.